Center of the World
by the Chronic Meltdown
Summary: Hajime would be okay, really, if it weren't for the fact that Touka can't go five minutes without mentioning Nodoka, and Hisa- well, Hisa's trying to figure out why her stomach is acting up lately. ToukaHajime, HisaMihoko, among others.
1. prologue: cogito, ergo sum

**C**enter of the **W**orld

**pro**_logue_**- **cogito,_ ergo sum_

Kunihiro Hajime had always had the bad habit of thinking too much when alone and bored.

It used to happen all the time before she'd met Touka. In fact, she'd been in the _middle_ of doing it exactly _when_ she'd met the other girl. She'd probably end up doing it until she died, too, and drive herself mad in the process of living.

To tell the truth, she hated thinking.

Of course, it wasn't like she wasn't smart, or didn't _like_ smart people, or didn't happen to enjoy the occasional deep conversation. It wasn't like that at all, really, because she was very intelligent  
(_she had to be, you know, what, with her practicing magic on her spare time and coming up with her own tricks- tricks which always left Touka feeling breathless, which was very truthfully an added bonus, and_-)  
and was surrounded by intelligent and incredibly talented people. To be honest, the reason why she hated thinking was, admittedly, very foolish.

It was so stupid, in fact, that she hated to _think _about it. Except that, against her wishes, she would end up thinking about all sorts of bad things all the time, and would also think about things that were not so much bad as troublesome. Worrisome.

Which was, in itself, why she detested thinking. Her brain would never let her focus on a positive event, and instead went for the bad.

Like, say, the fact that Touka's obsession with Haramura Nodoka was only increasing as time went by. Which, quite frankly, scared the living shit out of her.

But, you know, whatever. It's not like she'd really _care_ if Touka happened to…to…_desire_…that…that impossibly well-endowed, penguin carrying, pink haired _bim…_ but, _whatever_.

It's not like she really _cared_.

Really. She didn't.

She was just concerned in a way that didn't let her sleep at night and, during the times where she'd just break down from utter exhaustion, caused her to dream of very creative ways in which to make Nodoka _disappear_…

Like, say, with a particularly spectacular magic trick.

Like, say…

With a sleight of hand.

~o~

Takei Hisa was beginning to suffer from a chronic fluttering in her stomach, and she was absolutely positive it wasn't a good thing.

As a devious, teenage girl, she most certainly could not be considered dense. She was a sharp thinker, had a wonderful capacity for logic, and, at times, could not help but think in numbers. So she wasn't dense, and just so happened to be one of the brightest people her age.

She was a strategist. She planned ahead, took her time, and waited, with large amounts of patience. As a result, she won very often, very big, and very clearly.

So she was devious, and not dense, but she still went to the doctor.

"Discomfort in your stomach, you say?" He asked her, while sticking a thermometer in her mouth.

Hisa nodded and smiled in that particular way of hers, exceeding self-confidence and bordering on arrogance. Other people often found themselves wondering how she could make it seem like an attractive quality.

The doctor in front of her was one of them.

"Then, I'm going to have to run some other tests." He said softly, though he had a very big inkling as to what the girl's affliction was. "But first, I need to ask you some questions."

She nodded slightly in acceptance, the corners of her lips still tilted up into a small smile. Her eyes were, as always, seemingly perpetually amused.

"Right…have any of your friends been sick lately?"

She shook her head.

"Do you have anyone in your family that has gotten sick? Maybe a little brother or sister?"

Before she could answer, the thermometer began to beep. He took it out of her mouth before she could even begin to reach for it, looked at it, and muttered, "What a surprise. A perfectly normal temperature."

He turned to look at her, and she peered up at him with a raised eyebrow. _Smug girl_, he thought, but it was oddly charming on her.

"I don't have siblings." She replied, grinning at his expression. "And my aunt and uncle haven't been sick, either, so I don't think I've gotten it from anyone I know."

_Au contraire_, he hummed in his head, _I believe you have_.

But, please. As a responsible doctor, his only duty was to tell her what was wrong with her _medically_. He wasn't one of those strange love gurus, and he most certainly wasn't about to start on a different practice.

"Well, Takei-san, I'm certain you're a perfectly healthy seventeen year old girl." He turned around and began scribbling on a piece of paper. "I'm sure your…discomfort…will go away…eventually." Hisa visibly blanked at this. "But really, it's nothing to worry about. You seem like a bright girl. You'll figure it out in due course."

And with a last swish of his pen, he practically shoved her out of his office.

"Next!"

**A/N:**

Because I only _just_ finished watching Saki, and fell in love with Fukuji Mihoko in the process. Hisa, too, because she's badass. And, of course, there's my unusual infatuation with Hajime, but that's a different story.

Either way, I love all the characters in the series, so whoever reads this can expect more from me. Especially if it has to do with HisaMihoko. It's, like, my OTP for this fandom. And, God, I hate how fangirl-y I sound.

I'm not a fangirl, I swear. I just think a lot about characters that catch my attention and try to find out as much as I can about them.

Later.

PS: Koromo owns me. Nodoka does, too, because I understand her pain. It sucks to be well-endowed.


	2. ch 1: sensational obstruction

Center of the World

**chapter 1:** _sensational obstruction_

"_I went to the doctor yesterday."_

"Really?"

Someya Mako's voice was a quiet drawl, speaking volumes of the boredom that had plagued her the whole day. They were two days into their vacation, a little while after Hisa's graduation, and the loneliness had been driving her crazy. It was why she had jumped at the phone when it had rung, hissing at her father when he'd reached for it and successfully stalling his hand long enough for her to answer it. He'd been rather taken aback by her behavior. Taken aback, and perhaps a little frightened.

But he had supposed that all teenage girls were rather scary, sometimes, as experience in his youth had taught him, and had retreated into his newspaper.

"_Yeah." _The girl on the other side seemed somewhat distracted, and Mako briefly wondered what she was doing before reminding herself that Takei Hisa was quite possibly one of the most unreadable individuals she had ever met. Understanding her was an impossibility, and figuring out what she was thinking was another thing altogether. And she'd never exactly been one for lost causes. _"It was weird. He seemed very eccentric."_

_That_ made her smile. Granted, it was a very ironic smile, but irony was another form of amusement, and she just so happened to be well-versed in it. "So he was your type of doctor."

Hisa laughed at that, genuine laughter filled with warmth that seemed to spill through the phone and into her stomach. It was funny. She'd known the older girl for two years, now, and still wasn't used to her laugh. It was too bright, too intense- whenever Hisa laughed, she felt as though she were a fly too close to the sun. Dizzying. It was dizzying. It was very much like dealing with an unstoppable driving force, like dealing with someone so terribly alive that it was maddening.

"_Are you trying to tell me something, Mako-chan?" _The older girl teased, and Mako could hear the grin in her voice. It made her grin, too. _"Perhaps something along the lines of look who's talking?"_

"No, not at all, Takei-_sama_." She retorted, taking immense pleasure in the other girl's sudden huff. "Please don't take the things I say so…out of context."

The older girl laughed. _"Right, right…I'll try not to, next time."_

"So…why'd you go to the doctor, anyway?"

And that was the moment when she heard it. A sigh.

But it was not _a_ sigh. No. It was _the_ sigh.

_The _sigh. The one she heard every time she was in a room alone with Saki and Nodoka. The one that was more about other people than an astounding sense of achievement. Or disappointment. Or whatever else there was to make someone sigh.

It made her twitch. In shock.

And not the pleasant kind, either. It felt as though she'd been slapped in the face with a fish.

"_Well…I've been feeling…strange, lately."_

"Strange? Strange how?"

It briefly occurred to her that waiting for an answer without breathing wasn't exactly healthy, but then Hisa spoke, and the thought was immediately discarded.

"_It's my stomach. It's been bothering me."_

Her stomach. _Bothering_ her.

Really. It was enough to make Mako want to laugh. Or maybe cry. Actually, both sounded great right then.

"A…ha…" She said, slowly, before holding the phone away from herself and making strangled motions at her father, who watched her with a stupefied expression.

Then she held it against her ear, just in time to catch Hisa's next few words.

"…_weird because it's as though I have all these little animals crawling around in my stomach, and- well, it sometimes feels like I'm nervous, when I really _shouldn't_ be, and my hands, as revolting as this may sound, are suddenly getting a little moist-"_

"And you think you're _sick_?"

And then, she suddenly realized that perhaps love _was_ a sickness, and that she should not have reacted so vehemently. Violently. Whatever.

"_Oh?" _And, with an open mouth, Mako realized that it was the first time she'd ever heard Hisa sound somewhat uncertain. _"You think I'm not?"_

"Uhm, well…" She said, with the frightening eloquence of a twelve year old boy on his first date. "What did the doctor say?"

"_He said that I would get over it eventually, and that, since I seemed like a bright girl, I would figure out what was wrong with me…sooner or later."_

_Sounds like a smart doctor_, she wanted to say, but didn't.

Instead, she opted for the 'cheerful and stupid' routine she knew the doctor had used to get out of it. "Well, if the doctor said so, then he's probably right. Besides, it's not as though you could die from it."

"_I…guess not, but I'm still-"_

"Oh, wait a minute. Would you look at the time? I have to go. Tell me more about it later. Bye!"

"_Wha-?"_

She hung up and sat there, for a few minutes simply staring at the ceiling. And then it struck her that she really, _really_ wanted to know who it was.

What she was like. Or he, in the off-case that Hisa was actually straight.

She pressed her fists against her eyes in order to try and steady her rapidly beating heart.

~o~

Kunihiro Hajime had been leaning over the kitchen countertop, writing a list, when a body suddenly decided to press up against her back. Blonde hair spilled down over her shoulder and invaded her line of vision, almost completely blocking out the piece of paper she'd been scribbling on. She tensed as a reaction, because she could feel _everything_, including the contours of Touka's mouth as it pressed down upon her bare shoulder. She could also feel a faint twitch forming in the right corner of her own mouth.

"_Hajime_…"

She heard the whine –which was a whine in the way that Touka's words in the morning were whines, meaning that they weren't so much whines as words whispered with the silent plea of '_Read my mind and do as I say'_ because she didn't really want to _speak,_ and – and straightened up, flushing slightly when Touka's arms wrapped around her waist and the taller girl shifted to rest on her completely.

She craned her neck to find that the girl's eyes were heavy with sleep and watching her with that lazy, satisfied complacence they always did when she was tired.

"Yes, Touka-chan?"

She wondered why it was that there was a sudden fluttering in her stomach.

"_Hajime."_

She paused and blinked in confusion.

"What is it?"

Touka's mouth seemed to curve into a small smirk. _"Wake up."_

And then the _real_ Touka was quirking an eyebrow at her from above.

"You had a rather foolish smile on your face." She remarked, sitting down beside her on her bed. "What on Earth were you dreaming of?"

Hajime resisted the urge to pout. She didn't _do_ pouting.

So she sighed instead, and met Touka's eyes with her own. The same exasperating fluttering arose in her stomach. It made her smile slightly, nervously, and made her shake her head at the blonde's increasingly inquisitive stare.

"It was just a stupid dream."

Like Touka could ever actually be gay. Especially for _her_.

(Hajime's gaydar was coincidentally in need of heavy repairs, since everyone else was aware that Touka was gayer than a pair of crooked chopsticks.)

~o~

Her stomachache (which was not so much a stomach ache as a sign of, _'hey, the person you're with is very attractive, so eat her.'_) had steadily intensified throughout the day.

She wasn't sure why, since she'd been wary of what she had eaten before leaving her house, been cautious of what she had eaten at lunch, and been distrustful of what she'd had to drink on both occasions. Her palms were also doing that strange, sweaty thing she hated.

And she hated it precisely because it reminded her of a silly, teenage boy on his first date. Such was the tragedy of Takei Hisa.

But, overall, it had been a good day. She had found herself perfectly happy with how things had been going. So happy, in fact, that it was slightly alarming, especially when she considered the fact that she'd been feeling _funny_ for most of the day. Still, fun days were fun days, and she considered stumbling across Kazekoshi's golden girl, Fukuji Mihoko, a very nice coincidence.

She'd found the girl while passing by an ice cream parlor and had been (much to her discomfort) pleasantly surprised when the blonde had flushed the moment she saw her. She had then smiled brightly, as if happy to see her.

It had been a strange moment. She had, momentarily, felt like she'd fallen out of a tree and onto her back, as though the breath had been forcefully knocked out of her. But it hadn't been entirely unpleasant, either. It had been a strange moment.

What worried her was that she'd had some more…episodes… throughout the day. She was fairly certain she needed to get a second opinion. Eccentric doctors, though amusing, were, up to a point, useless. And she seemed to be getting worse, if the pounding in her chest was any indication. In fact, she was even fighting off a flush, which was, perhaps, the most shocking thing of all.

Or at least, shocking to her. She didn't think anyone had ever been able to make her blush. She _didn't_ blush. Ever. Except for when she suffered through a fever, but…she didn't exactly feel warm, at the moment.

Well, it wasn't like it mattered. She was very good at schooling her emotions, and Mihoko was none the wiser.

"Is something wrong, U-Takei-san?"

Hisa, who _had_ noticed Mihoko's slip, smiled crookedly. She wasn't exactly one to dwell on the past, but she did have her moments of nostalgia every once in a while.

"Everything's fine." She replied, before crossing her arms behind her back and sauntering forward a few steps. She twisted around to look at the girl, who had her trademark eye closed, and half grinned, in a way that was almost a smirk due to her natural self-confidence. "What would you say to dinner, captain?" She teased, taking a surprising amount of pleasure in the way Mihoko flushed.

The girl was shy around her, sometimes, but other times, she was nearly as self-confident as Hisa, without the appearance of being arrogant. It was nice. Very nice, in fact.

The discomfort in her stomach increased slightly (_I'm nervous_, she thought in surprise, while outwardly keeping a winning smile on her face. _Why am I nervous?_) as Mihoko smiled the way she _felt_, with a light flush on her face.

"I would like to…" she said softly, happily, even, before hastily adding, "Only if it isn't an inconvenience, of course."

The warmth she felt at that moment was alarming.

"Would I have asked if it were?" She inquired rhetorically, before walking forward and placing a hand on the girl's shoulder. She smiled, in a way that was gentler than she realized (in a way that left Mihoko floundering inwardly, her heart fluttering rapidly in her chest as she felt and _wondered_), and added, "I want to. If anyone's been an inconvenience today, it's me. I've been selfishly imposing my wishes on you since early this morning, and- well," she laughed sheepishly and looked away, suddenly realizing that she'd never even _asked_ whether the other girl minded, "I'd say I'm sorry, but the truth is that I'm really not."

She tentatively looked back at Mihoko, only to find the girl beaming at her.

"You haven't been an inconvenience at all, Takei-san." The blonde admitted quietly, "And, to be honest, even though I _did _have other things to do, I'm not sorry either."

As Mihoko peered up at her with a soft, happy smile on her face, Hisa was suddenly struck by the intense and bewildering awareness that – by all that was high and holy – the girl was beautiful. Unnervingly beautiful. So beautiful, in fact, that it was worrying. And there was an uncomfortable prickling in her stomach, and the jarring urge to do- _something_ – hug her –_something_ – and it _confused_ her.

And there were suddenly all these little thoughts in the back of her head, thoughts which had to do with boys and how they were clumsy and awkward and- How many boys were after her?

She subconsciously looked over Mihoko's shoulder with a small frown on her face, and, seeing no one, looked over her own. Her eyebrows drew together in suspicion. There were eyes –watching them - from every direction.

She could _feel_ them.

Meanwhile, Mihoko was confused. "Takei…san…?"

The taller girl suddenly took her hand and began to pull her along, a peculiar smile upon her face. "There's a diner up ahead. I eat there all the time. Come on."

The girl then began to mutter underneath her breath and to scowl every time they turned a corner.

Yes. Mihoko was _very_ confused. But Ueno-san was holding her hand and _that_ was doing precarious things to her heartbeat, so she couldn't find it in herself to speak.

~o~

"I knew it. I knew it. I _knew _it, I _knew it_, _I knew it!_" Ryuumonbuchi Touka leaned forward with her binoculars in her hand, indiscreetly attempting to follow them with her eyesight. "I knew it from the moment I saw them together this morning!" She paused for a second, in order to look over her left shoulder at Hagiyoshi. "Didn't I tell you?"

"You did indeed, Touka-sama." He replied, with one of the impossibly secretive and deceptively humble smiles Hajime had, eventually (because, damn it all, she'd _loathed_ them when she'd first met the guy), come to appreciate.

"Well, what do you know…" Jun whistled slowly, drawing herself up from the mailbox she'd hid behind. She then proceeded to lean on it, in her typical, 'I don't care about you 'cause I'm sexy' manner, and added, "You were right, Touka. They _are_ dating."

"…I still don't see the point in doing this…" Tomoki muttered, staring at all of them expressionlessly from her spot behind a car. "…unless you plan on blackmailing them, though I can't figure out what you could ever hope to _gain_ from that…"

Touka cackled from behind her bush ("My, what a wonderful idea!"), and Hajime sighed, feeling fond despite herself. She was used to the girl's eccentricities, many though they were. Although…stalking was a bit much, even for Touka. She'd been trying to figure out exactly _what_ the blonde expected to get out of this, and had come to the unsurprising conclusion that this was, perhaps, just another way for her to entertain herself.

She always _had_ gotten a kick out of those strange Spanish soap operas, with the crying women and the manly men named José. It was just something else that Hajime would never understand yet would always go along with, simply because time with Touka was time with Touka, regardless of how ridiculous whatever they did was.

So she kept pace with the other girl as she rolled from bush to bush, oblivious to the incredulous stares they were garnering from the people passing by them. Or at least, Touka was oblivious. Hajime was very much aware and really sort of worried because of it.

See, people were bound to recognize them at some point, and then they'd probably take pictures, and it would get out, and that would be it for Ryuumonbuchi's reputation. She could almost _see_ it. They'd be-

"Hajime, quit thinking ridiculous things and keep up! We're losing them!"

Funny how the blonde could almost read her thoughts. Funny, too, how she'd been able to tell that she'd been thinking about something _foolish_.

_Feh_, she thought, lips curling at the edges. _I hate thinking_.

~o~

Meanwhile, on the other side of the street, Fukuji Mihoko was beginning to understand why Kiyosumi's captain was acting like a paranoid schizophrenic.

Because there were _eyes_. _Eyes_. _Eyes all around _them.

It was a terribly disconcerting feeling, to the point where she was actually struggling with the urge to use her right eye. To use it, and to drive whoever followed them _away_. She was even beginning to entertain the thought of _glaring_.

_Glaring_. Really. She shook her head, faintly disturbed.

"Here we are." Hisa said, as they abruptly came to a halt in front of a small diner; her tone was happy, even though her eyes were entirely displeased and searching as they focused on a point somewhere across the street from them. "It's…" Her voice faltered, and Mihoko followed her gaze in time to catch a blur of _blonde_ duck behind a car.

The girl with the heterochromatic eyes felt her eyebrows draw together in confusion. She had the faintest inkling that she recognized that hair from somewhere. She looked to the side to find Hisa gazing back at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Was that…?" She began slowly, hesitant to voice her thoughts.

"Ryuumonbuchi Touka?" The other girl finished for her, before a strange smirk stole across her face. "Why, yes. I think it was."

And with that declaration, she reached for Mihoko's hand and began to tug her through the doors of the diner, for some reason relieved that _it was only Touka and not some random, foolish, awkward little _boy.

~o~

"So, captain…" she drawled, with a complacent smile that, unbeknownst to her, made the other girl's heart race, "You made me curious earlier…"

Halfway across the room from them, in a booth that had an admittedly good vantage point, Touka could barely hear a _thing_. Sure, the juice was good, but that wasn't what they were there for. Or at least, it wasn't what _she_ was there for.

She was there for some dirt. And if she couldn't hear, she had no dirt. So she did the only thing she could do.

"Hagiyoshi." She called, with a snap of her fingers.

"Yes, Touka-sama?" The butler asked, instantly appearing at her side. Touka shot him a very specific stare that held twenty different orders in one go. He nodded. "As you wish, Touka-sama."

He then proceeded to disappear.

Hajime stared at her blonde best friend, for a few moments, before coming to the decision that some bonds could simply not be explained. Telepathic butler bonds included.

~o~

Hisa's stomach was decidedly uneasy.

She was no longer worried about the smaller girl being followed home, or jumped on the way home, or- actually, now that she thought about it, she was. She would make sure the girl got home safely before making her way back to her own house.

But that was not why her stomach was decidedly uneasy.

Something told her that it had something to do with Mihoko's smiles. Or the way that seeing her across the booth from her was- well- she didn't know what it was, but it made her nervous.

Hisa had never exactly appreciated nervousness. This was why she was currently completely annoyed with herself. She would _definitely_ be seeing another doctor.

It wasn't normal for her to not be able to look at Mihoko in the, er, eye when she spoke to her. Or, at least, it wasn't normal for it to be _hard_.

And that was what she had been thinking about when the waitress came with their drinks, officially interrupting their conversation.

~o~

"Come on, Touka-chan… Tell us what you had him do."

They all peered at her in expectation. Touka flourished under all of the attention.

"Well," she finally relented, "I had him have the waitress put…certain things…around their vicinity."

Hajime blinked. "You're bugging their table?"

The blonde snickered. That was enough of an answer.

~o~

"Would you like anything else?"

Mihoko turned to Hisa with an inquisitive tilt of her head. The girl felt her lips tug up at the corners in response. The other girl could be _so endearing, _sometimes. She looked back up at the waitress, who was watching her with an amused expression. It made her stomach flip uncomfortably. As though she'd been caught doing something wrong.

"No, thank you."

The waitress nodded and smiled, before taking their menus and retreating. Hisa watched her for a few seconds, until she disappeared from view behind a door.

_That woman knows things._ She wasn't sure _what_. But she _knew_.

It made her feel distinctly…prickly.

She turned back with a small frown, only to find Mihoko watching her with an unreadable expression on her face.

It made her fidget in her seat, almost imperceptibly.

"What is it?"

Mihoko blinked, flushing, before looking back down at their table. "Nothing."

And even though she had no idea what she was saying or even why she was saying it, she said, "Our waitress frightens me, a little."

~o~

"…_a little."_

They were all stuck to the small speaker at the center of the table. From their table, they could see Fukuji's head shoot up in response to the red haired girl's statement. Hajime was finding it extremely hard not to smile like an idiot. Jun was acting as though she didn't care, while Tomoki genuinely didn't find the point in such an exercise.

Meanwhile, Touka _was_ grinning like an idiot.

_I can use this_, she thought, smirking, _I can use this to get back at Kiyosumi. Haramura Nodoka will never stand a chance the next time we meet!_

"_Why?" _Kazekoshi's captain's voice was full of wonder. _"She was…very nice."_

Takei's laughter spilled through the speakers. She sounded slightly nervous, like she had no idea what she was doing or what was happening, but she was struggling to fix something she sensed was wrong.

It reminded Hajime of a teenage boy on his first date. Touka found that really rather sad.

~o~

But before she could reply, a voice interrupted her.

"Captain?"

And before she could blink, Hisa found herself face to face with Ikeda Kana. Ikeda Kana, who was hugging Mihoko like her life depended on it. Mihoko, who was hugging her back with a _delighted_ smile on her face.

Mihoko. Hugging her.

_Delighted_.

That was when she first felt the monster.

**A/N: **

I enjoy jealous people. I am a sadistic b i tch, too, so I sometimes make them jealous on purpose. (I'm horrible to the people I date, I know. D: I don't deserve them.)

But hey. When it's in writing, other people enjoy it too. :D

Thanks for reviewing the last chapter. Oh, to Raerae, whom I hope reads this. I send you many hearts. Please. Be my beta. :D

(I know this chapter kind of sucked at the end, but please bear with me...? I kind of sort of did the short P.O.V.s on purpose. Though...they could have been a little longer. And I know it wasn't as funny as how you thought it would turn out, but...ahahaha...I needed to get to this point before actually delving into the humor. And Hajime's...well, Hajime's going to get a whole lot like the person you heard in the first chapter.

But that's when Nodoka comes in. ;D -insert smirk here- And she'll be here. _Soon_.)

Later~

PS: Reviews are food for the soul. My soul. Which is black. :D


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